Podcasts by The Evolution of Torah: Establishing Rabbinic Culture
In Season two of The Evolution of Torah, Rabbi Mordecai Schwartz takes usto four regions of the Medieval world to understand the specific Torah cultures that emerged from each place and their approach to Torah learning. The season covers Muslim Spain and North Africa, France, Germany, and Christian Spain over the course of 500 years, from the closing of the Talmud around the year 800 to the Spanish Inquisition. There is also one episode about Maimonides.
Further podcasts by JTS
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2.6 Evolution of Torah: Christian Spain from 2023-07-18T12:30:02
All the legal cultures we discussed in this season come together in Christian Spain in the 14th Century. Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel (the Rosh) is one of the rabbis leading the integration of the legal ...
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2.5 Evolution of Torah: Germany from 2023-07-11T12:30:02
The German Jewish community was at once highly organized and prosperous. At the same time, they were subject to the potentially violent whims of non-Jewish community around them. These parallels of...
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2.4 Maimonides from 2023-06-27T12:30:02
For this episode, we focus solely on Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204, Maimonides/Rambam), whose work in diverse disciplines from medicine to philosophy worked to elevate rabbinic legal culture. W...
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2.3 France from 2023-06-20T12:30:01
This episode focuses on Rashi (1040 - 1105, Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac) and his intellectual (and genetic) heirs. We start by exploring the significant differences between French rabbinic culture and ...
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2.2 Muslim Spain and North Africa from 2023-06-13T12:30:02
The legal culture of Muslim Spain and North Africa from the ninth to the thirteenth century focused on making the Talmud accessible through practical applications of Gaonic interpretations. This ep...
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2.1 Journeys in Torah Study from 2023-06-06T12:00:02
How did geographic diversity and separation impact rabbinic culture? In the season opener, we begin with the story of the four captives, the story that ended season one. This narrative offers an ex...
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The Evolution of Torah Season 2 Trailer from 2023-05-31T13:52:59
Get ready for Season 2 of the Evolution of Torah: Establishing Rabbinic Culture
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5. The Talmud after the Talmud from 2019-11-19T16:35:07
How did the Babylonian Talmud become a fixed, closed book, the most influential one in the Jewish world? In this episode, we discuss the final layers of interpretation and editing that made it into...
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4. Midrash: Making meaning from 2019-11-19T16:33:14
The Rabbis were not only interested in compiling and interpreting the Mishnah. In this episode, we look at some examples of Midrash, rabbinic interpretation of the Bible to derive both legal and na...
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3. The Talmud(s): Creating Torah through dispute from 2019-11-19T16:32:22
Interpreting the Mishnah evolved into a creative process where pairs of Rabbis would argue with each other. In this episode, we discuss how these debates about interpretation developed into a prima...
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2. The Mishnah: the earliest voices from 2019-11-19T16:32:02
The Mishnah is the foundational rabbinic text. How did it come to be? Who authored it? And what’s in it? In this episode, we look at an example of a mishnah and Rabbi Schwartz also gives an overvie...
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1. Who Were the Rabbis? from 2019-11-19T16:31:38
What led to the emergence of the group of scholars and teachers we call the Rabbis? What motivated them and what did they value? The Rabbis looked to their forebear, Hillel, as an exemplar of relig...
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